The Supreme Court will soon have a chance to weigh in on the scope of protected whistleblower activity under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX).

Earlier this year, the high court granted certiorari in Lawson v. FMR LLC, a case in which the Administrative Review Board (ARB) ruled that an employee of a private contractor or subcontractor to a public company is protected from retaliation under SOX's whistleblower provision.

On appeal, the 1st Circuit disagreed with the ARB's broad interpretation. The majority opinion in Lawson applied a strict interpretation of the language of SOX's whistleblower provision. The court found that private companies can't be held liable for SOX whistleblower retaliation, even though the plaintiffs in the case claimed their employer had terminated them because they had reported financial fraud.

The high court's granting of certiorari could mean that “there may be at least four justices who think the majority opinion in Lawson was wrong,” says Williams Mullen Partner Mary Pivec. “Although Justices Roberts, Scalia, Thomas and Alito are textualists in matters of statutory construction, in this instance I believe one or more of them may be inclined to vote for reversal.”